


Too Late for the Saviour

by Sheogorath



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: AR, Angst, Death, Depression, Gen, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-08
Updated: 2012-12-08
Packaged: 2017-11-20 14:57:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/586616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheogorath/pseuds/Sheogorath
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A more realistic  result of the abuse that Harry suffers under. Rated T for distressing themes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Too Late for the Saviour

**Author's Note:**

> I only claim copyright on the original parts of this fic because I don't want to have my first meeting with J.K. Rowling to take place in the courtroom.

# Too Late for the Saviour.

Harry Potter gently opened his window and released Hedwig to deliver his letter to Severus Snape, then, tightly clutching the scroll he had received from Dumbledore in his left hand, he prepared himself, took a deep breath, and placed the strongest block he could on his magic before kicking over the chair he'd somehow smuggled up to his bedroom at 4 Privet Drive.

Because he was playing on the PlayStation he'd been given by his parents for Christmas the previous year, Dudley Dursley never heard the slight thump of the chair hitting the floor in the room next to his own, and neither did his father, Vernon, who was sitting in the lounge, watching Panorama on BBC One. In fact, the only person who heard the sound was Petunia Dursley, who was in the kitchen, putting the finishing touches on a small low-calorie cake for her 'Ickle Diddykins'. She stopped when she heard the noise, but when it wasn't repeated, decided that the freak must have simply fallen over or something. After all, it wasn't like he was allowed to do his freakish tricks outside that school of his, and now his murderous godfather was no longer a threat, it really didn't matter if he hurt himself, just as long as he could do his chores in the morning. All they had to do was feed the boy enough and watch him write his letters every three days, and none of the freaks he associated with would disrupt her perfect family.

✱   ✱   ✱

Severus Snape was just stirring the final ingredients into a potion for Voldemort when something large and grey flew into the room before resolving itself into a snowy owl that immediately held its leg out for the double agent to untie the letter from it.

"Hmm? Hedwig? What are you doing here? Is that from Potter?"

As the owl hissed softly in confirmation, Snape took the piece of parchment and unrolled it, and what the letter said was this:  
"Dear Professor Snape,  
"I know we haven't exactly got along since I first came to Hogwarts, especially after my invasion of your privacy last term, but I truly feel you're the only person I can trust with this.  
"For as long as I can remember, my life has been a living hell. At first I was only punished with the cupboard under the stairs for any display of my 'freakishness' as the Dursleys call it, but then came denial of food, chores which are impossible to complete, and beatings for the slightest transgression, even when I have no idea what I'm supposed to have done. I can actually hear what you're probably thinking as I write this, that I'm the 'Gryffindor Golden Boy' and none of what I've stated could possibly have happened because I'm worshipped everywhere I go, but rest assured, Privet Drive is the last place I'm worshipped at, and I would never lie at a time like this.  
"You see, after years of coming back for more and more abuse every summer because the blood wards supposedly keep me 'safe,' I finally snapped and cried for over twenty minutes for apparently no reason, although it was really because Sirius is gone and I'm the one responsible for his death. Aunt Petunia actually got concerned about me for the first time in her life and dragged me to the doctor (a muggle healer), who referred me to a psychiatrist (a muggle mind healer).  
"It was about four weeks after I got put on paroxetine (that's like a mood improving potion for muggles) that I realised things _weren't_ getting better, they were only getting worse, and it really wasn't helping matters being sent unfulfilled promises of getting rescued from here by the Weasley twins. So when I received a false promise from Dumbledore that _he_ was coming to get me out of this hellhole, I decided enough was enough and I wasn't going to be hurt in any way from now on. That's why, by the time you read this, I'll already be dead. Everything I own is to be split equally between you and Draco Malfoy, since your treatment of me has always been open and consistent, and the others can have just what their 'care' of me has earned them, nothing.  
"Please forgive me for everything I've done, especially this, but I cannot live in this undeserved hell any longer.  
"Yours sincerely, Harry James Potter, aka 'The Boy Who Lived.'"

Once he'd finished reading the letter, Snape used a Dupliquill to write a quick note, sending one copy to the Weasleys with Hedwig, one with his own owl to Dumbledore, and the rest of the copies to all the others via Floo. Once this had been done, he sat and silently prayed to Merlin that the Potter boy was merely attention-seeking. However, the blood that had been used for ink looked all too real.

✱   ✱   ✱

At around eleven o'clock, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore strode up the path to the front door of the Dursley's house and rang the doorbell. He had come to see the Boy Who Lived as he had promised, and to take him to the Burrow for the rest of the summer. Although not before one little errand had been completed, however.

As Dumbledore stood on the front doorstep, he heard Harry's Uncle Vernon shouting, "Who the blazes is calling at this time of night?"

Once the door was opened, the elderly wizard said pleasantly, "Good evening. You must be Mr. Dursley. I daresay Harry has told you I would be coming for him?" Then, as he saw the large muggle's face turn the same shade as his dressing gown, the headmaster of Hogwarts continued, "Judging by your look of stunned disbelief, Harry did _not_ warn you I was coming. However, let us assume that you have invited me warmly into your house. It is unwise to linger overlong on doorsteps in these troubled times."

After the appearance of Dudley, the conversation carried on in the living room, then Dumbledore asked, "Where _is_ Harry, by the way? I would have thought he'd have come down to see me by now, he's never kept me waiting this long before. Do you mind if I go to see him? His room's _that_ way, you say?" He started to climb the stairs, then a few minutes later, the muggles downstairs heard him cry out, "Oh, no! Harry, my dear boy, why did you do this to yourself? What caused you to break in this way?"

Harry's aunt, uncle, and cousin dashed up the stairs, and what they saw shocked them even more deeply than when Hagrid had given Dudley a pig's tail, for in the room, the elderly wizard was on his knees, head bowed in sorrow, tears falling from his eyes; and in front of him, the body of the Saviour of the Wizarding World was suspended from a ligature securely attached to the light fitting in his bedroom.

✱   ✱   ✱

Two weeks after Dumbledore had found him hanging in his room, Harry was buried next to his parents in the plot in Godric's Hollow, all his friends there to mourn him and scatter earth on his coffin after it was lowered into the ground with the aid of a levitation spell, the whole proceedings carefully hidden from the muggles by the use of several disillusionment charms. It was the week after this that Snape and Malfoy came into their inheritances, but they shared what they got equally with all the others except Dumbledore. The reason for sharing was that the only letter from the twins that summer which mentioned rescuing Harry was one that said if nobody else got him out of Privet Drive by the end of the first week in August, they would; and the reason Dumbledore received nothing was because it was he who had sent the Boy Who Lived back into an abusive situation every year just to keep up the blood wards, not even bothering to have him properly checked on, and thus contributing to his premature death. In fact, the Daily Prophet and the Quibbler each got a copy of Harry's suicide letter, although no one knew how as Snape had had to be with Voldemort the week that had happened, and all the others had been busy.

After the loss of Harry Potter, the whole Wizarding World grieved for him before losing hope and quickly being overtaken by Voldemort and his army of Death Eaters, the Dark Mark being seen in the sky above more and more dwellings. After this, the Dark Army quickly began destroying the muggle world, causing Dumbledore to regret having been so remiss, and making the adult Dursleys wish they'd never spoilt their son and treated their nephew the way they had. However, all their regrets came far too late for the Saviour.

**Author's Note:**

> Copyright © 2011 Romersa's Protégé. Individuals and groups are free to copy and share this work for all purposes except large scale distribution, subject to credit being given and any derivatives being released under the same or a similar licence. All other rights reserved. Published with permission from J.K. Rowling.


End file.
